| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Passover | | By Deborah Kleinert Janowitz |
| | The First Declaration of Independence
THE SULLEN ice has crept from sunny fields, | |
| The conflict of the elements is passed! | |
| Again the spring its wealth of verdure yields, | |
| The probing sun has conquered frost at last! | |
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| ’Tis the Passover of reviving earth, | 5 |
| The longed for resurrection of its charms, | |
| Each peeping bud a type of Freedom’s birth,— | |
| A conquest each o’er winter’s dread alarms. | |
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| All, all the sunny joys till now concealed, | |
| Are prototypes of Liberty’s blest morn | 10 |
| When Israel’s rescue first that truth revealed,— | |
| “To free and equal rights all men are born!” | |
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| Infallible as Nature in her round | |
| Emancipates herself from winter’s reign, | |
| So shall the clarion note of Freedom sound | 15 |
| And all the world the burden proud sustain. | |
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| Oh mankind hear!—and to all those proclaim | |
| Who languish for the light of Freedom’s sun,— | |
| Let all the Nations join the glad acclaim,— | |
| “Our God is One—Humanity is One!” | 20 | | | |
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